EAST MIDLANDS INTERCOUNTIES DTL

HELD AT

NOTTINGHAM & DISTRICT GUN CLUB

ON 4TH SEPTEMBER

 

A warm but grey day, with a slight breeze which on occasion made the targets a bit unpredictable, greeted the early competitors at this event.  As usual, Nottinghamshire threw down the gauntlet with a team score of 1724 but the Lincolnshire senior team were on another planet as every member of the team put in the most superb performance.  Paul Smith dropped his first bird out but still finished on a 296 followed by Stuart Whitehead, Andy Jackson, Nick Day and Mike Burton on 294, Mark Shaw and Pete Atkin on 293 and Phil Porter on 278 giving them a team score of 1765.  There was some superb scoring from individuals during the day – Suffolk’s Geoff Howlett and Paul Neal scored 100/299 and 100/298, Leicestershire’s Alex Harris scored 100/299 and Cambridgeshire’s Chris Morris scored 100/298 but a team event is almost always won by the scores further down the pecking order and Lincolnshire’s pecking order stopped at 293.  However, we were conscious that, at the end of the day, Leicestershire, Norfolk and Suffolk were capable of overtaking our score so it was not until the final scores were in that we could become confident that the win in the senior category was ours.

Nick Day, Paul Smith, Mark Shaw, Stuart Whitehead, Andy Jackson & Mike Burton

 

In the veteran category our not-so-secret weapon, John Winn, did not disappoint when he posted a 297 which combined with Graham Elkington’s score of 285 gave a team total of 582 just 6 points behind Notts shooters, Russ Hufton and Andy Cain.

John Winn

 

Saira Boardman shot like a woman possessed as she recorded her best ever DTL score of 99/293 and although her team mates did their best to keep up it was not quite good enough to overtake the Notts ladies score of 562 just 8 points ahead.

Jacqui Baker & Saira Boardman

 

Like most counties, we are struggling for juniors and when young James Harvey had to drop out it was left to 11 year old George Dilley to do the best he could and for his first appearance as part of the Lincolnshire squad he certainly did not disgrace himself as he finished on a 251.   George normally just gets on with it but he had to confess to being a tad nervous on this occasion but at 11 years old he has a long way to go and can only go from strength to strength.

George Dilley

 

The Lincolnshire squads have on several occasions sat on a good score all day long only to find themselves overtaken at the end so it was a joyous moment when we were able to collect our awards of East Midlands glassware plus, on this occasion, the special 50^th anniversary lapel badge which was also given to members of the winning teams.

 

Well shot everybody, good job.

For all the team results click here.